For the cover of this issue, we bring you Seb Lester, a typographer and calligrapher living in the heart of Sussex, UK, who’s literally exploded into the public eye. He’s killing it across social media as well as in that funny old thing they call real life.

Always willing to keep broadening our horizons and testing our readers’ own boundaries and tastes, we have some fresh new talent alongside some of the more established names.

Our much-celebrated cover is from Japanese-American artist Audrey Kawasaki. A firm favourite of ours for a long time, she blends together a beautiful mix of delicate female forms with a dark manga influence. Incorporating Art Nouveau-inspired pattern work, wood grain and soft colours with subtly tortuous and erotic undertones her exotic hyperrealism is otherworldly.

This issue’s Diggin’ In The Crates sees the return of the hugely talented Jeff Soto to give us the rundown on some of the highlights of his extensive career and some of the directions he has explored over the course of his professional life.

Cute French couple Ella & Pitr give us a glimpse of their amazing partnership of eight years, showing how they double up on their creativity, travelling worldwide to paint while still holding it down as parents.

Dipping deep into the Antipodean pond, we look at the amazing, huge murals of Aussie, Fintan Magee and look through the refined lens of Nicole Reed’s camera. While we’re out that way we also hunker down with New Zealander Askew to chat about Pacific Island life and world politics.

Our main men in London, photographers Claude Crommelin, Mark Rigney of Hookedblog, NoLionsInEngland, and Paul Gray stomp the streets of London to find the finest examples of art in the streets, while Paul Green covers the Bristol scene to shine a light on the West Country.

The regular Instagram feature throws a spotlight on the slick snaps of Australian photographer, p1xels, with a nice mix of urban exploring, graffiti, architecture, inside and outside art and street scenes.

Mr Penfold holds it down for the UK, with his cartoon-style and colours as he gains confidence in his abstract illustrations. Also from the UK, we have fine pencil work from Steph Morris, getting freaky over sneakers as she shares her obsession.

Repping it hard for the girls, Polish painter Natalia Rak demonstrates her enviable skills across multiple mediums, from canvas to concrete.

We go through the looking glass to view art from the other side with Patrick Hull of Chicago-based Vertical Gallery in our Gallery Talk feature. Staying in the US, we also have man of the land, Spencer Keeton Cunningham, with his blend of skate styles and doodled motifs. And last but not least, heading further north, we check in with Canadian Sandra Chevrier and her awesome mix of comic book and photorealistic portraiture.

All in, there’s plenty to shout about and more than enough to fill the pages of our bigger-sized pages. Get yours online and in store now.

For the cover of VNA 26, we’ve returned to the UK to chat to a hugely influential artist and a bit of a personal hero of ours, Robert Del Naja, a character from the art world perhaps better known by his musical moniker; Massive Attack’s 3D. Featuring our first ever glitter screenprint, this is a milestone in VNA history and we’re pretty stoked with this collaboration with the Bristolian artist.

In VNA 26 we’ve managed to cram in large-scale muralists, fine art, graff writers who’ve transitioned to galleries, abstract art and even some skateboarding. From London and California, to New York and Penang by way of Bristol, we’ve scoured the world to bring you a mix of awesome artists we’ve just discovered alongside some of our old favourites who haven’t yet had their time to shine in VNA.

As for the cover artist, we’ve returned to the UK to chat to a hugely influential artist and a bit of a personal hero of ours, Robert Del Naja, a character from the art world perhaps better known by his musical moniker; Massive Attack’s 3D.

After our inaugural visit to Pow! Wow! Hawaii, we made the most of our contacts there, staying in touch with Augustine Kofie and going back to dig in the crates with Buff Monster. We’ve pulled out the stops to bring you some gallery talk with Jonathan LeVine, as well as crossing over to Australia to catch up with James Jirat Patradoon and Numskull.

We also feature 10101010101010101010, or Ten Ten for short, the mystical eastern styles of Calma, London-based print wizard, Aida, and US-artist, Greg Lamarche. To keep things fresh, we’ve also gone large with Lithuanian street painter Ernest Zacharevic and a little abstract too by chatting to Icelandic mark-maker, Katrin Fridriks.

With cover shots from the talented photographer James Sharrock, we’re stepping up our game all round and pushing the boat out with no less than 4 different covers available over the next couple of weeks.

VNA 26 Is available to buy online from www.verynearlyalmost.com or you can pick up a copy in your awesome local Newsagent – we’re now stocked at WHSmith in the UK and Barnes & Noble in the USA, as well as a whole host of smaller, independent stores.

As usual, it wouldn’t be a VNA launch without a big party to celebrate the release of the LTD Editions, and this time we have another dual-city launch in both London at Lazarides Outsiders and Bristol, at Weapon Of Choice Gallery, with delicious, beery support from our buddies at NYC’s Sixpoint Brewery.

A comparatively short visit to London by Crochet artist Olek for a solo show at Tony’s Gallery turned into a long involuntary stay. Luckily for VNA, photographer and writer NoLionsInEngland was able to get to know Olek well and we are delighted that Olek allowed us to produce an in-depth profile for issue 21 of VNA magazine. The interview is reproduced below and thanks to less space pressure we can provide a greater selection of photographs illustrating the striking visuals and intense colour of Olek’s various art forms.

Flamboyant and colourful, fizzing with energy yet melancholy, Olek the crochet artist sits knees folded sipping a tea outside a Shoreditch cafe. Her skirt rises up her leg revealing an electronic curfew tag, the tangible evidence of Olek’s run-in with the law which is why she has been in London for more than a year. An incident in a bar fending off the unwanted fumblings of a drunk man led to Olek being found guilty in a London court of “Wounding without intent”. From her Spring 2012 solo show at Tony’s Gallery to the charge, the trial and then the sentencing, Olek has been anchored in London as a no-fixed-abode couch nomad for over a year.

VNA’s good friend and long time photo contributor NoLionsInEngland came back from a recent trip to Reykjavik with such stunning photos of the local graffiti that we devoted a whole glorious seven pages of issue 19 of VNA to Reykjavik graffiti. NoLions has written an article for us to supplement that photo feature, and he has thrown in a whole different bunch of photographs of the awesome Reykjavik graff scene to compliment those in issue 19, which is available from our shop. Get ready to be shocked and amazed.

Expectations of Iceland are framed by volcanoes, glaciers, sea life and thermal baths but not necessarily graffiti. As the airport bus meandered tight streets disgorging short stay tourists, down a side street the elevation of one building revealed a top to bottom London Police. Where did that come from?! This stunning end elevation set the scene for unexpected discoveries almost everywhere we turned.